Sen. Ted W. Lieu, a lawyer and author of numerous bills relating to public safety, including a measure last year that sought to close loopholes in the state’s parole system, released the following statement in response to today’s divided US Supreme court ruling that California must release thousands of inmates from state prison:

“While I disagree with the US Supreme Court’s ruling to release tens of thousands of dangerous felons onto our streets, I acknowledge the power of the Court to render lethal and sweeping decisions,” Lieu said. “The vital issues at hand are now twofold: How do we safely comply with the court’s order; and how do we make sure this never happens again?”

“As an ardent opponent of CDCR’s failed implementation of the state’s non-revocable parole program, I am not confident they have either the capacity or tools to carry out such a monumental release of convicted felons,” Lieu said. “At a minimum, CDCR’s assessments on who can be safely released must be overhauled. The errors in CDCR’s computer program have already led to thousands of felons inappropriately being placed on unsupervised parole.”

“To ensure this catastrophic blow to public safety never happens again, we must invest money into rehabilitating our prisoners,” Lieu said. “Let me say that again in another way: We cannot continue to defund prison rehabilitation programs – like we did two years ago – and expect better results. California has one of the worst recidivism rates in the nation at 70 percent. If we had reduced that failure rate to even 50 percent, which means 32,000 fewer felons return to prison, this prisoner-release order would not have occurred.”

“If we do not increase funding to rehabilitate our prisoners, this situation will happen again, and again.” For more, visit Lieu’s Website.

Ted W. Lieu represents nearly 1 million residents of Senate District 28, which includes the cities of Carson, El Segundo, Hermosa Beach, Lomita, Manhattan Beach, Redondo Beach and Torrance, as well as portions of Long Beach and Los Angeles. For more, visit www.senate.ca.gov/lieu.

Comments

As I proposed ten years ago, create a new clemency system designed to reduce the prison population safely by having average citizens sit on county clemency boards. People should be looking at who is fit for returning to the community. If average citizens knew who was really in prison, we would not have overcrowded prisons.

This is much safer than having vote seeking politicians or job protecting prison officials sabotage safety at a cost to the taxpayers.

21st century prison and justice reform must recognize that clemency is the most powerful tool in criminal justice and it is not being used properly. If used properly it can save billions and thousands of lives.